Guilt = Gas

One of the (many) things that I’ve learned from my super fab clients is that guilt is pretty common.

Whether it’s because you feel you’ve not done enough, or because you are a bad mum, or because you haven’t been for a run yet this month, guilt creeps up, in some way, for almost everyone at some point.

It doesn’t even seem to matter whether or not the guilt is justified at all: it’s still there.

It might be the fact that you yelled at your kid because you were already at the end of your tether when they dropped their juice on the floor. It might be the fact that chicken out of your early morning cold shower every day. It might be the fact that you once ate a whole tub of cream that you should have been plopping into cream buns in the cake shop you worked at on Saturdays as a teen (whoops) or it might be about something completely different.

Aside from all the emotional health reasons about reducing guilt, there is a really big reason why guilt is bad.

And it goes like this:

When you feel guilty, your body feels stressed.

It doesn’t know that the stress from guilt is to do with something you did years ago. It just knows that there is a danger somewhere out there: probably a big bear about to come and eat you.

And there is one big problem if your body is stressed and primed, to go and run away from the grizzly bear.

That problem is the fact that your body CAN’T also be ready to digest your food properly at the same time as being stressed.

It can only do the running away/guilt thing, or it can be relaxed and digesting.

Add to that the fact that you might be feeling guilty about eating a mega-food-treat, and you’ve got a recipe for the biggest, baddest fart cakes in the world!

Now, I’m not suggesting that guilt can be swiped away in five seconds flat. But I am suggesting, just for the fun of it, to do your best not to sit there wallowing in a spot of guilt about the terrible thing you did to your cousin 17 years ago when you are having your lunch-a-roony.

Just for those 20 minutes, think about something nice.

And if you are sat there about to eat two donuts with chocolate icing on top, then for goodness sake, don’t feel guilty about it, or you’ll just make the whole thing even worse. Eat them, chew them, taste them, enjoy them and then move on.

Can you do that?

Good. Your belly and your friends will thank you (and me!) for it.

And if you want to give your belly even more happiness, sign up to my newsletter so that you get details of workshops, courses and my seasonal Reboots when they come out!